UN: Zero-Carbon Buildings urgently Needed | BuildingGreen

‘The numbers don’t lie. To keep global warming at tolerable levels, the building industry has to change—radically and rapidly. That’s the message of a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Global Status Report 2017 sounds a red alert: “near-zero-energy, zero-emissions buildings need to become the construction standard globally within the next decade” to ensure average temperatures rise no more than 2°C. Energy retrofits also need to become much more common.

The building sector is responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions, according to the report. That includes embodied carbon of building materials, and it makes the building sector the single largest contributor to global warming.’

About Hajo Meijer

Hajo Meijer is the sole proprietor of Ecocentric Design, committed to deeply sustainable architecture.
Hajo is a graduate from the faculty of Architecture at the TU Delft in the Netherlands and a certified Passive House Designer.
Hajo lives with his family on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.